FRITZ HAEG‘s work has included animal architecture, crocheted rugs, domestic gatherings, edible gardens, educational environments, preserved foods, public dances, sculptural knitwear, temporary encampments, urban parades, wild landscapes, and occasionally buildings for people. Recent projects include Edible Estates – an international series of domestic edible landscapes; Animal Estates – a housing initiative for native wildlife in cities around the world; Domestic Integrities – installations and gatherings staged on massive crocheted rugs of discarded clothing and textiles that expand as they travel; various projects of designing, constructing, parading & rewilding; and Sundown Schoolhouse – an evolving series of educational environments and initiatives which evolved out of the Sundown Salon gatherings at his geodesic home base in the hills of Los Angeles. In late 2014 Fritz Haeg began a long-term project and new chapter of work with the purchase of the historic 1970’s commune Salmon Creek Farm on the Mendocino Coast.

Domestic Integrities A01, Museum of Modern Art, 2012

Haeg studied architecture in Italy at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia and Carnegie Mellon University, where he received his B. Arch. He is a Rome Prize fellow – in residence at the American Academy in Rome from 2010-2011, a MacDowell Colony Fellow (2007, 2009 and 2010), Montalvo Arts Center fellow (2012), nominated for National Design Awards in 2009 and 2010 and a 2014 California Community Foundation Visual Art Fellow. He has variously taught in architecture, design, and fine art programs at Princeton University, California Institute of the Arts, Art Center College of Design, Parsons School of Design, the University of Southern California, and Wayne State University in Detroit as the Elaine L. Jacob Chair in Visual Art visiting professor.

Edible Estates at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall

Haeg has produced and exhibited projects at the Walker Art Center; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Guggenheim Museum; the Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern; the Hayward Gallery; Arup Phase 2, London; the Liverpool Biennial; Casco Office of Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht; Stroom, Den Haag; the Netherlands Architecture Institute; Pollinaria, Abruzzo; Blood Mountain Foundation, Budapest; SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul; the Israeli Center for Digital Arts; Mass MoCA; the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park; the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; The Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Broad Art Museum, East Lansing; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Wattis Institute, San Francisco; the Berkeley Art Museum; the Hammer Museum; the MAK Center, Los Angeles among other institutions. His work has been published internationally, including profiles and features in The New York Times, Financial Times, Frieze, Artforum, The Independent, Dwell, Men’s Vogue, BBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and The Martha Stewart Show. Recent books include “The Sundown Salon Unfolding Archive” (Evil Twin Publications, 2009) and “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn” (Metropolis Books, 2008. 2nd ed. 2010).

Salmon Creek Farm was established as a commune on the Mendocino Coast in Albion, California in 1971 by a group of young people disenchanted with mainstream society and searching for something else. Along with many other communes in the area, SCF grew out of the student protest culture of the late 60’s, resisting the Vietnam war and general mindless consumer conformity, while promoting issues like civil rights, gay liberation, and environmental consciousness. Turning their back on systems they no longer believed in, they learned how to build their own homes, make their own clothes, grow their own food while living communally, exploring Native American rituals, and practicing consensus decision-making. One by one the original communards moved away – three of whom settled on three sides of the property – until an official closing ceremony was held in 2012. With its purchase by artist Fritz Haeg in November 2014, Salmon Creek Farm continues as a place to take a step back from contemporary urban society and starts a new chapter as a long-term art project formed by many hands, a new sort of commune-farm-homestead-sanctuary-school hybrid. (Check out the Instagram page, this New York Times story, and the Frieze videos “Salmon Creek Farm Part One: Beginnings” and “Part Two: Futures” )

Sundown Salon gatherings occurred on periodic Sunday afternoons from 2001-2006 in the geodesic dome on Sundown Drive, galvanizing an extended community of friends, collaborators and peers from Los Angeles and beyond through events, happenings, gatherings, meetings, pageantry, performances, shows, stunts and spectacles. In 2009 “Salon Colada: Miami” is presented by MOCA Miami and “The Sundown Salon Unfolding Archive” (Evil Twin Publications) is released, documenting the series of events with photos and stories contributed by hundreds of the artists who participated. The 380 page accordion folding book unfurls to become a 140 foot long instant exhibition. In 2006 Sundown Salon transformed into Sundown Schoolhouse, an evolving educational environment originally based in the geodesic dome. The Schoolhouse was itinerant from 2007 to 2012, functioning at times as the personal school of chief student Fritz Haeg. Programming guided by his curiosities and housed in a series of dome tent environments where local artists and experts lead workshops, classes and seminars around particular themes and topics. Recent highlights have included Practicing Moving at the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Sundown Schoolhouse of Queer Home Economics at the Hayward Gallery in London, and At Home in L.A. at Human Resources. In summer 2014 the Schoolhouse re-launches regular seasonal enrollment programming at it’s home base with the 12 week session of The Los Angeles Seminary for Embodied and Civic Arts.

Edible Estates was initiated on Independence Day 2005 with the planting of the first in the series of gardens in Salina, Kansas, the geographic center of the United States. Domestic front lawns are replaced with edible landscapes which are then documented in photos, videos, stories, printed materials, and exhibitions. Other regional prototype gardens have since been planted in Lakewood, CA in 2006; Maplewood, NJ and London in 2007; Austin, Baltimore, and Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles in 2008; Manhattan in 2009; Ridgefield, CT and Rome in 2010; Istanbul in 2011; Budapest, Hungary in 2012. The final three editions are planted in Holon, Isreal; Aarhus, Denmark; and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN in 2013. “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn” (Metropolis Books, 2010, 2nd ed.) documents the first eight gardens in the series, with stories from the garden owners and framed by essays from renowned garden writers.

Domestic Integrities turns it’s attention to local patterns and rituals of interior domestic landscapes, the way we use what we resourcefully find around us to artfully make ourselves at home, bringing the outdoors in. Domestic Integrity Fields are charged sites – on crocheted rugs of discarded textiles – to test, perform, and present how we want to live. One rug in each continent gradually expands as it travels from city to city. Full editions of the project are commissioned and presented by Pollinaria in Abruzzo (Jun 2012 – June 2013); MoMA, New York (Sep – Nov 2012); The MSU Broad Art Museum (Sep 2012 – Jan 2013); The Hammer Museum (Feb – Apr 2013); The deCordeva Museum (May – Aug 2013); The Walker Art Center (Aug – Nov 2013) with Fritz Haeg: At Home in the City an exhibition and year-long series of projects, events and installations; and The Berkeley Art Museum as a part of the experimental exhibition The Possible (Jan – May 2014) curated by artist David Wilson.

85 thoughts on - INFO & BIO

Hello Fritz,
I work for an art center in southeastern PA- I am the education curator and when I saw your bit on Your Art Assignment/PBS I was so moved. I would love to have you do a collaboration with us. Long distance is fine. Can we be in touch?
Thanks,
Beth

fritz—any chance you can help me!?–i RECYCLED my lawn and started to “yarden “–i planted natives, herbs, veggies, heirlooms. i met the required rubrics to attain official certification for a NATURAL WILDLIFE HABITAT with the NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION. the city destroyed my property because a neighbor complained—PLEASE CAN YOU HELP?— I need someone to testify in court that my landscape did not harm anyone and was in fact beneficial to all life on the planet!—

Hi Fritz
I would like to nominate Wildflowering LA for an international public art award. I have tried contacting LAND but have had no reply. Please could your studio get in touch with me so we can discuss the nomination?
Thank you
best wishes

Hello Fritz… I am one of the founders of The Farm community in Tennessee in 1971, where I was the chief architect. I am an artist, engineer and solar designer/builder. I am currently living in Comptche (about ten miles from you) where I am helping my daughter and son-in-law remodel their house on 11 acres to upgrade it before selling… they have purchased a beautiful home on 77 acres in Sam’s Valley, Oregon (where I usually live). I will be here for the next couple of months… would it be possible to come meet you and view your project?

Hi Fritz, I contact you on behalf of Editoriale Lotus. We had the pleasure of publishing your work in Lotus international #149. We are currently working on an exhibition on urban agriculture for the XXI Triennale di Milano and would like to present the Edible Estates project. I tried contacting by email but it doesn’t seem to work. Let me know if you agree on presenting your work and how I may contact you.

Aloha Fritz,
Just read of your Salmon Creek, Mendocino project in March 20 edition of “T” (New York Times Style Magazine). Having lived in that area for 35 years I agree it is an ideal place to breathe deep and manifest projects without distractions from urban confetti.
Just a few miles up the road I am offering for sale our 23 acre estate. For the past 20 years my family has lived there creating a most ideal home/workplace/retreat. Features include fabulous 4 bd home, 2 bd handmade cabin, pond with another cabin, separate large yoga/dance studio, workshop. The 1/4 mile creek through center of steep Redwoods form a breathtaking 100 foot waterfall. Located 1 mile from Mendocino town.
Please pass my contact info to potential principal buyers.

Hello Fritz–I am Stephen Thomas of Oxbow School. My wife, Patricia Curtan, and I have been here in Mendocino for a break, and would really like to visit Salmon Creek Farm. We are leaving today, Friday 8 April, and have tried email and text to no avail, if it would be possibile to visit today, could you text or call me at 510.708.3105?
If not this time, we will tra to connect for a future visit.
/st

Hello Fritz! I am an artist currently living in LA (with previous lives elsewhere 🙂 ) who has long dreamed of an “art farm”…. I’ve learned of Salmon Creek and am wondering if you are accepting residents for a portion of this summer? (I’m imagining a combination of helping with construction and farming efforts/contributing to the community as well as time to further my own work). I’d love to get in touch and learn more of what you are seeking/if this is a possibility. Thanks!

Hello Heidi,
Thanks for your interest in Salmon Creek Farm. Check out the webpage salmoncreekfarm.org for more info. I’ve been overwhelmed with inquiries, but at this point we are only soliciting letters of interest from students, recent grads, and carpenters. Send a letter to the PO Box listed if that is you. We are early in the process of reviving the place, and I am still gradually introducing my own extended community of artist friends to the place, many are still planning first visits.
Regards,
Fritz

Hi Fritz, Erik Jutten from Rotterdam here. Daan den Houter – my fellow boardmember of City in the Making, a fun person and good artist is comming to LA. Do you have or know a cheap place to stay from this wednesday until sunday?
Greetz,
Erik.

Ps 18th of juli until 15th of august I will be in Detroit again with Mitch, Gina, Graem and Faina 😉 are you around too?

Hi Fritz!
Jack Moll here! I hope your well! I haven’t seen you since the Rainer performance at the Getty and the pilgrimage to Mendocino. I’d love to hear from you to see if there’s an opportunity to come and be a part of the Salmon Creek Farm this fall.
Best,
JTM

Hello, a friend recommended your work to me. I am a multi-skilled artist/carpenter http://www.laruebuilt.com with a passion for gardening and sustainable living. I would love to come see the work you are doing, and perhaps exchange knowledge/skills for a week or two, perhaps in the spring.
Are you accepting temporary residencies?

Congratulations with your glorious and breathtaking project. I love to peruse your posts on instagram. I have the impression you receive many requests therefore I hope you do not mind me adding one. I am a visual artist based in Amsterdam, currently working on a documentary on the Commons. With this project I aim to show how contemporary communities in various realms use this historic concept for sharing resources and solving problems.
Would you be willing to briefly answer several questions on your project which would be published in this documentary project? It should only take a brief moment. I would truly appreciate it.

Hi Fritz, I am a friend of Luis C. and would like to invite you to Seattle to give a lecture in June. (The lecture is officially known as “The Robert ‘Ned’ Behnke Annual Lecture”.) Could you please contact me as soon as possible and let me know if you are interested? I tried reaching you by email to no avail. Thanks and best wishes, Melissa

Hello Fritz,
I am interesting in using a number of your ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics from your front yard edible landscapes in our Gardening magazine. Can you please contact me at colleenq@yankeepub.com? I would greatly appreciate it.
Colleen

On behalf of the Visiting Artists and Scholars Committee of the School of Art and Design, NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred University, I would like to invite you to participate in a program entitled “Design for Change: Solutions for Rural America.” Our goals include engaging the power of the design process to create tangible, positive change. We envision a series of projects, workshops, lectures, exhibitions, and/or publication of the process and its results to take place during the 2018–2019 Academic Year. Fritz, your empathic social consciousness and extraordinarily multi-disciplinary approach to art and design resonate greatly with the goals of this commune/ity design initiative. The “Design for Change” series seeks to include socially proactive participants from a variety of disciplines, such as Emily Pilloton, Sanjet Sethi, Future Farmers, Ryan Swanson, and Mazatl/Just Seeds.

We are currently working with community members to identify salient needs and discover what we, as artists and designers, can do to help. We are also pursuing funding for the program.

Please let us know if you are interested and available. If so, please let use know how best to reach you to discuss the exciting possibilities for this program and your participation in it.

Fritz,
I am with the Prairie Gateway Chapter ASLA and we are hosting the Central States event in Kansas City this year on April 11-13 2018. Our planning committee wanted to reach out to see if you were interested in presenting a talk for continuing education.